DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolors - 15ml Tubes

The Art of Making Paint Video

Our exclusive PrimaTek colors are unique paints made with pure, authentic mineral pigments that are mined directly from the earth and each one has a story. These colors have captured the imagination of artists for hundreds or even thousands of years. Their diversity is amazing, see the following for details about some of our favorite shades.

Our Minnesota Pipestone is the real thing. There is a national monument at Pipestone Minnesota where the stone is quarried in small amounts and made into pipes and other objects by native carvers. We purchased some of this mineral and converted it into pigment through our proprietary slow grinding process. Minnesota Pipestone has intriguing layers of granular texture. Radiant pink overtones accentuate an underlying golden glow that adds a new dimension to artwork.

Vivianite, named after the English mineralogist F.G.Vivian, is a rare mineral of secondary origin that exhibits an intense dark blue masstone with a slight reddish blue undertone. It has been identified in medieval paintings in Germany and in English medieval plychromy. The school of Cologne used it to depict skies in the 13th and 14th century.

Lapis Lazuli has been prized for its beauty, its mystical and healing properties, and its perfection as a pigment. Ancient civilizations believed that the veins of glittering pyrite found in the Lapis were actual gold, driving up its value. The stone’s expense today, as in the ancient world, results from its hardness, which makes extraction difficult.

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, a unique and vibrant blue; it comes from Sleeping Beauty Mountain in Arizona. Lightfast and permanent, with none of the transient color fade that plagues most turquoise, this is truly an extraordinary color. As a mineral, turquoise has a unique molecular structure. In watercolor, its porous nature encourages interaction with other pigments and produces granular washes like no other paint. From the very first test, artists feel its powers. Juicy washes flow easily from the brush, while drybrush work has the intense texture found only in a mineral pigment. Washed alongside a warm, staining pigment, it is almost three-dimensional.

See our tutorial, "All About Brushes", for a great source of information on how to select the right brushes to create great paintings.

Quantity Discount pricing available only through Daniel Smith sales at 800-426-6740.